I use to have hughesnet as my internet provider.  What a life-saver it was to get this internet service.  I do not get cable and dsl was not available either.  I used dial-up internet for years.  Those of you who've had dial-up, know what a nuisance that can be.  I heard of the satellite internet service, when it first came out, on tv-yes I have directv satellite service.  It took me a while to finally order hughesnet (which was then direcway), but I do not regret it.

It took me so long to order it, because it requires an 18 month contract.  I do not like contracts, I like to have the option of cancelling something if I want, when I want.  It is also quite expensive-  $60.00 a month, I only paid $15.00 a month with dial-up.  The $60.00 a month, is if you pay for your satellite equipment up front, otherwise it would have been $90.00 a month.  I paid for the equipment up front, which cost me $400.00, after I sent in my $100.00 rebate.  Even though I bought the equipment up front, I still had to have the 18 month contract. 

With everybody always wanting to use the computer, it was becoming a real problem around here.  Plus my phone line was always tied up with dial-up internet.  And when someone did try to call, not only could they not get through, but it would hang up the computer.  Plus dial-up was super slow and unreliable.

Satellite internet solved that problem.  It is really fast (not as fast as cable), and I've got a router hooked up, allowing everyone to be on their own computer at the same time.  What an awesome Christmas present that was.

What's the catch:  Well, there wasn't much in the beginning, besides the contract.  The installation guy refused to put it up as high as we wanted it, so that caused some problems in the beginning of getting the best signal.  There are coordinates on the computer that you have to mess with, to get it dialed in just right to get the best signal, plus you've got to point the dish itself in the right direction.  We had to do all this, because we moved ours up higher.

After we got it set up the way we wanted and working better, it was great, until it starts raining hard.  When the weather gets crappy, there's a 99% chance that it won't work.  If we don't clean off the spider webs, when it rains, the webs will have water on them and we will lose our signal.  I heard snow does this also.  A bit of an inconvenience, if you live where it rains a lot.

The new rule:  Hughesnet came out with a new rule called Fair Use Policy.  If you download too much in  a day, then your internet service will totally slow down to practically not work most of that 24 hour period.  My kids were downloading music and videos and we were wondering why our internet service was so slow, when I called Hughes, that's when I found out about their new lame rule.  

And when calling tech support, be prepared to be holding the phone to your ear for at least 30 minutes-most of it is waiting for a tech.  And make sure you have your site i.d. number ready.

Like with everything, there is the good and bad.  With satellite internet service, the good outweighs the bad 10 fold.  I will never go back to dial-up.  If you live in an area where cable or dsl is not available, satellite internet is the way to go.    

My satellite dish got messed up and since my contract was up, I would of had to pay a tech to come out and fix it, or do a new contract.  So I switched to Wildblue-2 year contract, more downloads and cheaper price per month.  They don't cap downloads by the day, just the month.  And, we have a better signal when it rains.

If this information has been helpful to you, please click on the Yes button below.  Thanks and happy surfing.